Monday, February 28, 2011

Today is the last day of Black History Month. While of course every day should be one where we reflect on the contributions of all peoples to improve American democracy, this month has always held a special place given the unique experience of black people in the United States. From property, a people who were quintessentially American yet judged less than human fought to perfect American Democracy in the face of unimaginable bigotry, violence, and evil. For me, that is worth (at least) one month out of the year.

This year, I have chosen to reflect on the complexities of the Black experience by offering a series entitled, "Black History Month is..." Sure, black history month is an obligatory reciting of great deeds, firsts, and inventors. But as I have gotten older, I have come to see that history is much more complex. I still cling to The Black Book (my favorite tome of coming of age negro awareness). Slowly, I have to accept that black folks are like all people. Despite the inherently politicized nature of our experience in the West and our special "Blue's Sensibility," some black folks choose to fight against white supremacy and State power, while others choose to be bystanders (or even literally and metaphorically get in bed with it). The collective experience of Black America is not just one of resistance where 24/7, of everyday, and of every hour, we are engaged in some great freedom struggle against the Racial State and white hegemonic power. No, sometimes the true fruits of liberty are the freedom to simply "be."

In total, while there are everyday Black heroes whose success in a society--where upon birth they were immediately deemed less than, separate and unequal, or doomed to second class citizenship by virtue of their blood quantum--was measured by living a good life, there are others less heroic, less brave, and perhaps not even commendable who are also part of Black history. I tried to capture just a little of that complexity with my "Black History Month is..." series.

As the month ends, I would like to add one more wrinkle to how we conceptualize what does (or does not) count as the experience and history of Black Americans--an intervention that may be provocative (or even offensive) to some. I would suggest that Black History Month is also everyday white people doing the right thing. This is no pat on the back, false praise, and get out jail card for those white Americans who want to imagine that in mass their people were on the right side of history in this country--any fair minded appraisal of the Black Freedom Struggle and how White America was complicit with and benefited from racism would immediately throw that assertion into the dustbin of history.

When I speak of everyday white folks doing the right thing, I mean those quiet white people who nudged history forward by selling homes to black folks in "restricted communities" when such a choice could have meant professional suicide. I mean those quiet white folks who were in charge of integrating their offices and places of employment...and did so fairly and professionally. I mean those quiet white folks who reached out to the first wave of black students who crossed the colorline and bravely entered what were formerly all-White, Jim and Jane Crow spaces. I mean those quiet white folks who served honorably and side by side with their black brothers and sisters in the aftermath of President Truman's groundbreaking military desegregation order. I mean those white bank officers who approved loans for blacks when the convention was that we should be denied. And of course I mean the Freedom Riders, Abolitionists, and those who were down like John Brown despite the risk to their own lives.

In total, I mean those quiet white folks who did the right thing not because they were especially righteous, moral, or noble. Some acted on principle. Others acted on self-interest. And a few were simply being themselves and knew of no other way to behave.

The choice to stand with or against power is simply that--a choice. When some white folks, especially of the post-Civil Rights, post-racial, Benetton Obama generation say, "I don't know what to do about racism! I am just one person" Or "that was so long ago, I shouldn't feel guilty about the past, most white people would have done the same things if they lived then and we should judge history in its context!"

In response, I simply say that "people make choices." You can choose to act. You can choose to stand pat. White people, as human beings, with full agency, make that choice everyday. For example, white people like Charles Moore, legendary photographer of the Civil Rights Movement, chose to do the right thing. Here, and in that way, I hold white folks to the same level of accountability and justice as I do my black and brown kin.

I don't know if that bar is set to high or too low. But the standard exists. And this generation of white Americans is part of a continuum of history to which they are responsible. Ultimately, Black History Month is everyday white people doing the right thing. In this month, as well as year round, white folks should be at least as reflective regarding this fact as their fellow black Americans.

Rep. Michele Bachmann told radio host Mark Levin on Friday evening that in facing protests by labor supporters Gov. Scott Walker and Wisconsin Republicans are like President Abraham Lincoln, who fought the Confederacy, and President Reagan, who contended with the Soviet Union. But contrary to Bachmann’s assertion, Lincoln had more in common with the 14 Democrats who left the state to avoid a vote on the GOP bill to cut collective bargaining for Wisconsin workers: In 1840, he jumped out a window to avoid a vote on a bill he didn’t like.

“I’m just observing our neighbors to the east over there and having a laugh,” Bachmann said. “I’d say it’s a new revolution going on over there. We saw the great Ronald Reagan pushing back the Soviet Union in the eastern bloc nations. We saw Abraham Lincoln push back the Confederacy in Atlanta. And now we’re seeing the Republicans in Wisconsin causing the Democrats to retreat to Rockford, Illinois, so I’d say we’re winning!”

She added, “This is how liberals react. They don’t take no for an answer.”

****

Once more, they show us who they always are. For the Vox Populi New Right Tea Party GOP, stupid is once again the new black. As a qualifier, there is more truth to Bachmann's claim regarding good old Ronnie Reagan as union buster number one, than said lady knew. In a Right-wing echo chamber that is utterly detached from reality, and whose minions bite at the bit for a chance to recite the talking point of the day, Michelle Bachmann is champion of champions--Queen Bee of the mediocrities.

A person who is batshit crazy is certifiably nuts. The phrase has origins in the old fashioned term "bats in the belfry." Old churches had a structure at the top called a belfry, which housed the bells. Bats are extremely sensitive to sound and would never inhabit a belfry of an active church where the bell was rung frequently. Occasionally, when a church was abandoned and many years passed without the bell being rung, bats would eventually come and inhabit the belfry. So, when somebody said that an individual had "bats in the belfry" it meant that there was "nothing going on upstairs" (as in that person's brain). To be BATSHIT CRAZY is to take this even a step further. A person who is batshit crazy is so nuts that not only is their belfry full of bats, but so many bats have been there for so long that the belfry is coated in batshit. Hence, the craziest of crazy people are BATSHIT CRAZY.

****

The whole piece can be found here. What other historical analogies will the defenders of the New Right GOP's assault on unions abuse next?

Saturday, February 26, 2011

In the maelstrom of the Herman Cain Race Minstrel Affair, we have missed out on quite a few conversations. Last Monday was Presidents' Day--a day of rest, Popeye's Fried Chicken coupon redemption, and obligatory editorials ranking the "best" and "worst" Chief Executives. Of course the Right want to exaggerate the greatness of corporate pitchman turned President, Ronald Reagan. Others want to claim FDR as particularly noteworthy for his mastery of realpolitik because of how he saved capitalism from itself. The middle road and safe choice for the best there was and the best there ever will be are the trinity of Washington, Lincoln, and Jefferson. Ultimately, there is no accounting for taste. But historians of the presidency do have their (least and most) favorites.

History is written in multiple drafts. For example, as the people of the Middle East challenge power and remake their societies some on the Right want to claim these events as the direct result of George Bush's dreams of empire in Iraq and a policy of preemptive war. Only the hindsight wisdom of history will determine if that narrative is correct or not.

Where would America be in the 21st century if we had followed the plan outlined by President Carter's famous speech? How would Americans respond in the present if Obama channeled the real talk and raw honesty of President Carter? If President Obama looked us in the collective eye and spoke plainly about the mess we are in at the nadir of American Empire and how we can salvage our collective destiny?

We don't need the genius of Noam Chomsky or George Lakoff to analyze the semiotics at work in the above passage. Just as with the Herman Cain liberal racism framing, the New Right has once more discovered victimology, the politics of grievance, and political correctness. Notice the emphasis: this conservative "victim" is described as "free," "independent," "thinking," and "American." As a bonus, the subject of the video is also the Other and now because of his political orientation is doubly marginalized. Thus by implication, liberals, progressives, people of color--and now our GLBQT brothers and sisters who are not Right-wing quislings--are not free, independent, thinking, or American.

Question: is the discovery of "racism" by Right-wing reactionaries the unintended consequence and hell-spawn blowback of 3rd wave feminism's development of the critical framework known as intersectionality?

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Lots of new stuff for you guys in the coming days. But, this piece from the Daily Kos and Racism Review was so priceless and well timed that I felt obligated to share it.

Given all that has transpired this week where good white conservatives painted me with faux outrage as a "racist" for using a metaphor in my description of how black conservatives buck dance and perform for the Right-wing racial imagination, we have this overlooked story on the Fox News website.

Where was the condemnation? Where was the outrage? Funny, I thought the beating heart and soul of contemporary popular tea party conservatism was "colorblind?" That it took great offense to such hateful and vicious speech?

Alas, the Right-wing Vox Populi show their true colors. It is the greatest offense since the kidnapping of the Lindbergh baby for a black person to make an allusion that links Herman Cain "to the monkey in the window," but it is alright for white folks to call Barack Obama a gorilla.

Today on the Fox Nation web site, they posted a story on the popularity of some new videos of a gorilla walking upright like a man. That seems like it should be an innocuous little animal tale with a precocious jungle creature imitating human behavior. But this is Fox Nation we're talking about.

This is the sort of item that Fox Nation posts fully aware of the dog-whistle effect it will have on its readers: a community of dimwits that is simply incapable of masking the open hostility and racism that is at the core of their putrid souls. Here is a sampling of the comments to be found attached to the article:

1preacher: Yea, I could see where this Gorilla evolved from obama's family.

amveteran: This is a true knuckle dragger. Reminds me of Al Sharpton.

winterhawk: Just as I thought, that's buckwheat's daddy.

flyinjohn23: Not only that....He got himself one of those Hiawian Birth Certificates over the internet all on his own too.

1preacher: Because I said that this was obama's mother, that is racist? Not following that one.

hawk1052: Shelia Jackson Lee, comes to mind.

armed: is the one in the background carrying a teleprompter and throwing tater tots at the other one.

And if that isn't bad enough, there were at least 13 comments that the Fox Nationalists "flagged for review." If the examples above made it past their decency filter, we can only imagine how disgusting were the comments that were removed were. And in addition to the overt racism, there was also an abundance of derogatory and idiotic remarks regarding evolution and the intelligence of liberals.

These people are sick and beyond pathetic. And Fox News knows exactly what they are doing by throwing this chum in the tank. This isn't the first time that Fox Nation's readers behaved so atrociously. Last year they posted feverishly about how they wished the President were dead.

The bigots at Fox are surely comfortable with this sort of hatred. We learned last summer that only 1.38% of Fox's audience is African American (compared to about 20% each for CNN and MSNBC). So they probably don't think they have much to lose by being racist jerkwads. Just their humanity, and they don't have much of that to begin with.

For those not in the know, this douche bagRight-wing personality has made a career as an "ambush" journalist whose claim to fame is a series of sophomoric "interviews" with Al Franken, John Murtha, and Charlie Rangel among other notable figures. Mattera, an unapologetic homophobe and bigot, is so unprofessional that even Bill O'Reilly schooled him on the importance of civility in journalism.

Thus, all subtlety would be thrown out of the window when/if I appeared on his show. I made a simple calculus: 770 AM is a huge station with great reach which I could play to my advantage; two, an appearance on a cookie cutter Right-wing radio show would be a chance to conduct a long-planned experiment.

The Right-wing echo chamber is not based on reasoned discourse because its premise is anti-intellectualism. Consequently, those not of the Right-wing tribe often lose in "debates" when on their turf because the tendency of progressives/Leftists/centrists/reasonable Conservatives is to want to talk and exchange ideas. Popular Conservatism is based on the opposite--scream, talk in bullet points, and recite talking points. The only way to win is to either play for a stalemate, or alternatively to deploy the rhetorical strategies of mouth-breathing Populist Conservatism against them.

In my appearance on The Jason Mattera Show I decided for a combination of both approaches. Mattera is a bully. Mattera is also someone who must control the situation in order to make his points because he is so utterly and totally bereft of substantive ideas. How do you beat a bully? You bully them back. How do you defeat an ambush? You ambush your attackers.

The Mattera Show did a good deal of subtle post-editing in their podcast of my appearance on Sunday (note to self: always record your own appearances for posterity sake) . In my live appearance, Mattera was noticeably flustered and could not answer basic questions: are black people who vote for the Democratic Party children or stupid? Are poor whites who vote for the Republican Party on a "plantation" of sorts?

He conveniently edited these out with repeated inserts of "lower his mic." During the live broadcast Mattera had no answer and fell all over himself evading the question.

I had some contacts listening to the show live. That group included neutral folks so that I could get some unbiased feedback. The consensus on their end was that I owned Mr. Mattera from step one. In the version which Jason Mattera did not throw down the memory well, I think I fought him to a standstill and won on points (especially given the fact that kicked me off the show in consternation and resorted to profanity and calling me a "kook" when he could not make his "logic" stick). There is also a caller--now edited out--who further angered Mattera when she seconded everything that I said.

The Right-wing shock jock class is not one that I want to be associated with on a repeated basis. As I told a friend, I felt as though I lost a few I.Q. points from merely being a "guest" in such a venue. I can only imagine the damage which Right-wing media does to its listeners. As always, your feedback is welcome and appreciated.

Saturday, February 19, 2011

I want to thank all of my fellow travelers who have chimed in on the Herman Cain Race Minstrel Affair. I may not have responded to each of you individually. But trust, your support is appreciated and I give love to you all.

I am going to be doing a few more interviews on the radio, as well as online regarding this matter, and then move on. I don't dance or monkeyshine for gold, silver, or attention so I am going to stick with the girl that I brought to the prom. Stated differently, I am going to keep doing what I have been doing damn/despite/because/and regardless of the consequences. As you know I follow the pro-wrestlers' creed: I am me with the volume turned up. I will not deviate from my promise to always be sincere and real. That decision rule--one rooted in my working class roots--has brought me farther than I ever thought possible. With your help, our momentum will keep pushing us forward to bigger and greater things.

In keeping with my love principle, I only felt it fair to ask one of the longtime members of the WARN family who has been out there in the trenches--quite literally--since this dust-up began, to give her account of the events as she experienced them.

Note to Republicans: hire some new PR people. The minions you've sent out screaming "Democrat Plantation" at Blacks in an effort to make a dent in the largely Democratic voting bloc are an abject failure. Read on to find out why they are consistently rebuffed, and treated with the all the derision and ridicule a fool deserves.

Still in the Shadow of Uncle Tom: This Week's Political Showbiz and the Race-Based Melodrama That Ensued

I was raised by Reagan Democrat(ic) Moral Majority Christian Coalition parents, both ordained ministers, who were primarily "race people". That is, they saw their own work as the first/only Blacks in their places of employment, our positioning as the first/only Blacks in our neighborhood and their decision to send me to all-white Christian schools as desegregation part 2. Many liberals do not know about, or understand, this aspect of Black conservatism. I do, because I lived it, and am a product of it. I spent three years at Fundagelical U., where I had my first more-than-friends same-sex set of events (oh, the things that go on in those sex-segregated dorms...) My father was emeritus and board member of a Christian college with ties to the New Apostolic Reformation. My first vote was for Pat Robertson.

And yes, I really do have a crush on Sarah Palin.

With those ex-conservative bonafides out of the way, I can say with certainty there's good reason not to trust people like Herman Cain, Unhyphenated-Americans like Lloyd Marcus, and the seven other Black characters on the Tea Party circuit. Their sincerity is in question, due not simply to their skin color, as Chauncey's detractors wish to make one believe, but because of their behavior which fits longstanding patterns of race-opportunism.

Enter: coonery, tommery and minstrelsy--the popular American art form infamous for distorting and misrepresenting Black people in the White imagination. Make no mistake: Race minstrelsy continues in the 21st century.

Have you ever noticed that Republicans, and with all of their loud wails of being the "party of Lincoln," do not mention the postbellum era of Republican Reconstruction during the years of 1865-1877? Though "Jim Crow" was a character out of blackface minstrelsy, White state's rights conservatives imposed this formal type of racism on all non-whites immediately after the end of the Civil War, with this period of de facto white supremacy being codified into law with the landmark Supreme Court case Plessy vs Ferguson (1896). Furthermore, in many regions of the US, such as the westsouth, north and midwest, this condition lasted into the late 1970s and sometimes decades beyond.

So of course Republicans don't mention the problematic era of Reconstruction--at least not in their outside voices anyway. Why? To do so would alienate their state's rights, Confederate flag-fetishizing constituents.

Hey you, the voter with all the values! Have some Obama waffles!

For example, the Obama Waffles caricature, based in Aunt Jemima visual rhetoric, is directly out of minstrelsy branding. Black conservatives know this. The Muslim-baiting, McCarthy-lite inside content was even worse. But how many conservatives, outside of one, professional homo-hater Bishop Harry Jackson, have ever dared to speak up against such bigotry?

In addition, have you ever noticed how "these lovers of the Constitution" are silent on Tammy Bruce's almost-daily characterization of President Barack Obama as "Urkel?" What is a reference to a 1990s-era sitcom character that scholars Mary Dalton and Laura Linder associate with minstrelsy stock characters such as Sambo the coon. Moreover, it never made the news when Bruce asserted back in January that she gets to call gays "homos" because she is one.

Of course, we heard a few grumbles from their corner when Jane Hamsher of Firedoglake.com posted an illustration of Senator Joe Lieberman in blackface. But, I do not recall it making the news at Fox News.

And no maliciousness or death wishes are ever directed at those who wield the epithet "race-pimp", which on the American right is synonymous with Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton. Yet we saw it happen against Mr. DeVega over at Alternet.

Conservative jihadis from the lowliest twitterers to the twits at Fox/Kingdom HoldingNews Channel seek to silence Chauncey DeVega's so-called "racism" as they are quick to condemn and police the behavior of every Black person outside the conservative fold. Ultimately, a Black man speaking his mind about the behavior of a Black conservative without the permission of white overseers, and without apologies or reservation, is an affront to their White authority.

To White conservatives this is bad behavior. Moreover, it is bad behavior that must be punished. Preferably, with repeated epithet strings like like "you're on the Democrat plantation"; "only Black conservatives (i.e. 5% of Black voters or less) think for themselves"; The KKK is the Democrats Robert Byrd; Nazis are Socialists; Read some Ayn Rand, etc. etc. etc.. We observed this behavior from freeper after freeper over at Alternet.

Nobody with common sense buys their stale old Reconstruction-era hysteria. This is the fundamental issue conservatives have with Chauncey DeVega's article, and his subsequent, rage-inducing refusal to be intimidated by even the loudest, most obnoxious Right-wing bullies.

For Herman Cain's part, he is simply using this as a free publicity grab. He should be thanking Chauncey DeVega and giving him 15% for putting Cain on the cultural map, instead of leaving him to stew in Tea Party obscurity.

At A Crossroads of Cognitive Dissonance: The Left-wing of the Far Right

At present, the mainstream state's rights crowd and affiliated Tea Partiers seem to be testing out another remedy.

Armed with language and concepts stolen from liberals, the left wing of the far Right is on the march. They are bringing the conservative movement to a social crossroads.

This week, we saw all manner of state's rights conservatives labeling the entire left "racists" who, like Chauncey DeVega, victimize them with "hate speech". The late 20th and early days of the 21st centuries are apparently moments when the bizarre and surreal have seemingly become the new normal and mundane.

Conservative gays like GOProud attend CPAC. Even Glenn Beck says same sex marriage isn't a threat to America and shouldn't be a priority of the right. Sarah Palin wears the label "feminist" with in-your-face aplomb, and, seeimingly, singlehandedly introduced the concept of "misogyny" to the same right-wing males who have spent the past twenty years denying it's existence. Now, they use the term with relish against anyone who disagree with her policies. The feminists who did not vote for Mrs. Palin are now "the sexists".

Two years ago, no conservative would be caught dead engaging in such leftist Marxist progressive politically-correct anti-liberty speech. Today, it's the norm in many of their circles. However ironic and problematic, given their backgrounds the lemmings cheering on Herman Cain at CPAC are going to have a much tougher time repackaging themselves as mavens of diversity and true inheritors of the mantle of abolitionism and civil rights.

Today, the GOP runs candidates who dress as Nazi war criminals in their spare time. Their gubernatorial candidate for New York sends these emails to friends on the taxpayer dime. Conservative Republicans permit governors to impose Confederate History Month onto the public, and dig in their heels when others allow KKK members to be commemorated on state license plates. A Republican women's organization in South Carolina recently held a "Southern Experience" ball, complete with Confederate generals (Glenn McConnell, R - SC State Senate President), and rent-a-slaves. McConnell's colleague in the senate, Jake Knotts, called other GOP politicians "ragheads".

For me, this grand burlesque of extreme cognitive dissonance has been the week's entertainment. Save for a couple shows on Fox and the usual suspects on the Right-wing side of these Internets, their predictable antics in trying to shut down Chauncey DeVega turned out to be a flop. In a tragicomedy of sorts, conservatives have become the very anti-First Amendment PC police they have spent the past two decades decrying. And it is high comedy watching them try to fulfill this role on the public stage.

Listen to Uncle Ruckus Herman Cain's interview if you dare as there is some deep racial Stockholm syndrome victimology going on there. Notice how he talks about "white patriots," but diminishes black folks in mass.

This has been a whirlwind few days. I am still processing everything and am appreciative of your support. Regardless of what happens I got a Right-wing conservative talk radio host to quote Transformers: The Movie. Score points for the ghetto nerds with that one. I also had the pleasure of having Hermain Cain quote me calling him a "race minstrel" and "black garbage pail kid." And now I was condemned by Pulitzer prize winning journalist Cynthia Tucker as "sophomoric" and "vicious." It would seem I am moving up to the high rent district with the enemies I am making. Oh the joys of life.

Finally, I was invited on Fox News to debate Juan Williams on the Sean Hannity Show. I politely declined for a variety of reasons. But, if the venue and timing were a better fit I am more than willing to do an appearance...hint hint, if NPR or others want to chat I am ready, willing, and more than eager and able. I am also going to make a surprise appearance on blogtalk radio in a few minutes. Sometimes folks should be careful who they mention as the devil may in fact show up.

The hits just keep on coming. Is there a glass case full of Black Conservatives kept in storage somewhere that is labeled "break in case of emergency?" First, CORE condemned me. Now, Project 21 is playing the victimology card. Question(s): I thought that 1) Conservatives don't believe in racism; and 2) that legitimate Right-wing types don't believe in playing the "boo-hoo," "we are victims," and "let's boycott" game?

Washington, D.C. – Members of the Project 21 black leadership network are condemning a major left-wing web site's blistering racial attack on black conservative Herman Cain, and once again is asking why the liberal civil rights establishment still refuses to condemn racial attacks on black conservatives.

"I find it shocking and an indictment of Herman Cain's antagonist when he is obviously compelled to retreat to amoral diatribe when valid arguments against Cain's record cannot be found. This tactic is the 800-pound yellow gorilla in the middle of the room that progressives like to pretend doesn't exist," said Project 21 çhairman Mychal Massie. "Where are the usual suspects who are so quick to find racial insult in the acts of the tea partiers?"

Cain, a prominent conservative activist and former corporate CEO, was a speaker at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Washington, D.C. on February 11. In the wake of that speech, the prominent left-wing web site AlterNet featured a blog post referencing the address that called Cain "a monkey in the window." Cain's speech was called "a version of race minstrelsy where he performs 'authentic negritude' as wish fulfillment for White Conservative fantasies" and "bad comedy." Black conservatives in general were referred to as "black garbage pail kids" who "entertain and perform for their White Conservative masters."

"It would be one thing to critique Herman Cain's politics, but it seems the message was less important than the man. This cowardly, anonymous attack was based solely on Cain's race," noted Project 21's Massie. "It's a problem that all black conservatives face, and it's appalling when such race-based animosity is ignored by the civil rights establishment. Saying nothing will confirm they have a double-standard rooted deeply in a political agenda."

The author of the outrageous AlterNet post is "Chauncey DeVega" — a pseudonym. According to his bio, DeVega's writing has appeared in prominent media venues such as the New York Times, Atlantic Monthly and the Root (a web site run by the Washington Post and Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates). DeVega's post was added to the AlterNet site on February 12. He also has another blog hosted by Salon.com as well as his own web site.

"I call on AlterNet to immediately withdraw and issue a public condemnation of this vitriolic content appearing in their online publication," said Project 21 member Niger Innis, who introduced Cain at CPAC. "AlterNet's mission statement boasts that it is a medium that transcends traditional journalism and is, instead, intended to 'emphasize workable solutions to persistent social problems.' AlterNet also asserts that their content 'underscores a commitment to fairness, equality and global stewardship.' Such virtues are in direct contradiction to the deplorable and irresponsible commentary they have allowed to be published."

Innis, who is also the national spokesman for the Congress of Racial Equality, added: "This is particularly ironic that, after calls for civility in political discourse by many in the media, they would — through their inaction — encourage such socially reckless and racially insensitive material on a prominent left-wing publication."

On July 17, 2010 on the Fox News Channel, Project 21 full-time fellow Deneen Borelli asked NAACP senior vice president Hilary Shelton if his group would "issue a statement condemning those individuals" who target black conservatives for abuse based on their politics. At the time, Shelton replied, "Why, yes, ma'am… Just give us some details." Despite sending him details and a follow-up letter, no condemnation was ever issued by the NAACP.

Project 21 Chairman Mychal Massie repeatedly challenged Al Shaprton, Marc Morial and former D.C. congressional delegate Walter Fauntroy to a debate, now tentatively scheduled, with or without them, for February 28 in Washington, D.C., to address the trio's past allegations about tea party extremism. Massie has yet to receive any replies. Project 21, a leading voice of black conservatives since 1992, is sponsored by the National Center for Public Policy Research (http://www.nationalcenter.org).

It would seem that Chauncey DeVega is a bad boy again. In the past, I have been mean to Sarah Palin. And in the present, my cruelty apparently knows no boundaries as I have hurt the feelings and besmirched the honor of good Conservative lapdog negro hero Herman Cain. In fact, Cain's feelings are so damaged that he has issued a statement on his Facebook page and asked Niger Innis of the Congress on Racial Equality to publicly rebuke me (as well as Alternet) for daring to feature my piece, "Black History Month is Herman Cain Playing the Race Minstrel for CPAC."

Color me pleased. So my friends, the Conservative horde has been unleashed. From Breitbart, the Washington Times, to Hot Air, Pajamas Media, Townhall, and Power Line the right wing echo chamber is beating its drums. Please enjoy my infamy, as I wouldn't be motivated to cause so much trouble if it were not for all of your support.

What next my tribe of respectable negro friends and allies? Should I lay low or join the battle? And what will the reactionary troglodytes of the New Right do next?

And once more, how does it feel to be a problem...or perhaps even window dressing?

Ultimately, the historical power of white supremacy is (contrary to the fantasies held by the post-Civil Rights generation) not that of an outlier. Instead, white supremacy's power is in its ubiquitous nature--the capacity to be both everywhere and nowhere at all.

Saturday, February 12, 2011

In the immortal words of Megatron in Transformers: The Movie, Herman Cain's speech to CPAC really is bad comedy. As you know, I find black garbage pail kidsblack conservatives fascinating not because of what they believe, but rather because of how they entertain and perform for their White Conservative masters. Ultimately, I simply cannot resist their tasty double-dipped Oreo goodness...

When race minstrelsy was America's most popular form of mass entertainment, black actors would often have to pretend to be white men, who then in turn would put on the cork to play the role of the "black" coon, Sambo, or Jumping Jim Crow. Adding insult to injury, in a truly perverse and twisted example of the power of American white supremacy black vaudevillians would often pretend to be white in order to denigrate black people for the pleasures of the white gaze.

Herman Cain--an ironic name if ever, and one more suited to a tragic figure in a Harlem Renaissance era novella--is not "blackening twice" as some race minstrels chose to do.

[Unfortunately, the attendees at CPAC are not the butt of some type of joke where the white man wearing the cork is really a black man in secret.]

Instead, Herman Cain's shtick is a version of race minstrelsy where he performs "authentic negritude" as wish fulfillment for White Conservative fantasies. Like the fountain at Lourdes, Cain in his designated role as black Conservative mascot, absolves the White racial reactionaries at CPAC of their sins. This is a refined performance that Black Conservatives have perfected over many decades and centuries of practice.

Let's consider the routine. First, Cain enters the stage to Motown music. Then Cain feigns swimming after rolling up his sleeves to show them his black skin and how he is a hardworking negro (not like those other ones). Cain bellows in a preacher affected voice and channels the folksy negro down home accent of his late grandpappy. In the money shot, Cain gives the obligatory "black folks who are not Republicans are on the plantation" speech to the joyous applause of his White benefactors. And he doubles down by legitimating any opposition to President Barack Obama as virtuous and patriotic regardless of the bigoted well-springs from which it may flow.

In total, CPAC is a carnival and a roadshow for reactionary Conservatives. It is only fitting that in the great tradition of the freak show, the human zoo, the boardwalk, and the great midway world's fairs of the 19th and 20th centuries, there is a Borneo man, a Venus Hottentot or a tribe of cannibals from deepest darkest Africa or Papua New Guinea on display. For CPAC and the White Conservative imagination, Herman Cain and his black and brown kin are that featured attraction.

We always need a monkey in the window, for he/she reminds us of our humanity while simultaneously reinforcing a sense of our own superiority. Sadly, there are always folks who are willing to play that role because it pays so well.

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Working on some things here...but in the meantime my friend Werner Herzog's Bear of the website I Used to be Disgusted, Now I try to be Amused, has come up with something pithy, sharp, and sardonic that deserves some shine. The following is really meme worthy--at least in my humble opinion--so please circulate it widely. A question: What would you add to the list?

Isn't It Ironic That?

Some of the same people who use the political system in this country to impose their religious views of abortion and homosexuality on everyone else in this country are those doing the most fear mongering about the Muslim Brotherhood?

That many so-called "libertarians" who decry national parks and health care reform as "tyranny" maintain support for an authoritarian ruler like Mubarak?

The same people who weep over the loss of "traditional values" are among the loudest cheerleaders for the biggest destroyer of traditional values yet invented: unfettered consumer capitalism.?

That the same people who are constantly spewing paranoid rhetoric about "the government" want to burn Julian Assange at the stake for unmasking the government's lies and hypocrisies when it comes to foreign policy?

Many academics who use their research to defend and praise the disadvantaged have no sympathy whatsoever for the downtrodden adjuncts in their own departments who are criminally underpaid?

The Pope who constantly chides Europeans over their lack of morality covered up horrible crimes by his own clergy?

A man like Rick Perry, who has never been anything in his entire life except for a politician, can make a career out of attacking government.? (Here's an idea Rick: we'll take you up on it and let you give up your wasteful government job.)

Monday, February 7, 2011

If Mad Men has taught me anything, it is that in their chosen vocation, the dream merchants do few things unintentionally as they cultivate the desires of citizen-consumers.

It is almost assured that there will be much overreaction and hand-wringing over the racially clumsy and stereotyped laden Pepsi Max Superbowl ad. But, said response does not mean that the spot itself is not worthy of some critical engagement.

There really isn't too much to offer in terms of meta-analysis for this spot. Perhaps, this is why the advertisement just seems so lazy. The commercial deploys the "Sassy Mammy"/Sapphire stereotype: the over-bearing, neck-snapping black woman (and lest we not forget that stereotypes persist because they are rooted in some reality that folks choose to reproduce or not...see Tyler Perry and others) which persists even into the 21st century. As the obligatory target for said "sista's" overbearing harpiness, Pepsi Max features an emasculated black man and his obligatory object of lust--the always beguiling and sexy white woman. In turn, Black man's kryptonite is left unconscious by Sapphire..and his big, black, wide, can. She and her man then beat a hasty retreat.

If we don't retreat in the face of what seems to be such a grossly flat text, the semiotics of the Pepsi Max commercial can become (at least potentially) quite interesting. Could there in fact be more going on in the implications of the advertisement (and what it is signaling to in the collective political subconscious) than in the spot itself? Is a focus on reception more illuminating than an exclusive examination of the text's visuals and narrative?

For example, check out some of the running comments on the advertisement here. White privilege and the normality of whiteness--as always--are on fully display. Because you know, "why can't it just be about a man and his overbearing wife?" and "why do you always have to bring race into this stuff?"

But then again, I may have unnecessarily donned my racism chasing shoes because sometimes a cigar is just a cigar...

Sunday, February 6, 2011

Black professional athletes may still be a bunch of million dollar slaves, but Doug Williams was/is still THAT DUDE. I remember going to the barbershop that week and all the folks were still talking about Doug Williams' amazing performance. And not to be forgotten, this was still in a moment when respectable folks could publicly muse about the intellectual ability of black quarterbacks and their perceived lack of the acuity necessary to run a sophisticated NFL offense. How things change? (Or do they?)

Enjoy the game folks, I am more interested in the commercials than the teams playing (my beloved Pats done messed up again, but at least Tom Brady is the unanimous MVP...thank the fates that piece of human debris Michael Vick didn't get one vote from the press for that most high acknowledgment. There appears to be some little amount of justice in the world).

Friday, February 4, 2011

One day, far in the future, I will write the book Pimpin' and Reconstruction: Reflections on African American Deviance and Resistance in the Post Civil War South.

Just a quick reminder of sorts, that Black History is made by real people, some heroic, others despicable, and many who are just content to stand by the sidelines of history. We are "blues people." But, black folk are also everyday people. For my dollar, the luxury to be the latter has always been the real goal of the Black Freedom Struggle.

Thursday, February 3, 2011

Cornel West, member of the high council in the Matrix films Black public intellectual, philosopher, and scholar performs his effortless genius negritude once more (and this is the paradox, like other great professionals he is so polished and practiced that the difficult is made to look easy).

As I am learning, interviews for a popular audience are difficult to do because personality has to be balanced with communicating complex facts in a setting that is not generally amenable to a college or university lecture. Some folks can do this effortlessly (like Professor West) and other amazingly accomplished scholars not so well (see Professor Nell Irvin Painter'spainful interview on the Colbert Report as an example).

I always pay close attention to the great performers of the pundit and intellectual classes. Why? One, I admire anyone who is a master of the craft. And two, many of the skills exhibited by the most engaging and incisive intellectuals who ply their craft in public life are transferable to the classroom. While many of us who make our living in the library and in front of students are indifferent to the art of teaching as a performance, for those of us who ponder such things a great interview is a gold mine of professional riches.

Brother West and Late Late Show host Craig Ferguson put on a master clinic in the art of the interview. While the complexities of Black History Month in the post-racial Age of Obama cannot be reduced to 20 minutes, both gave as good as they got and offered us a good many gems to improvise around.

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

The pundit classes are chattering away on the street-level events in Egypt. I choose to demure. For now, I am just sitting back and enjoying the ride so to speak as Mubarak and 30 plus years of U.S. policy get's shaken, rattled, and rolled. My thoughts on the uprising in Egypt are also more meta-level than policy oriented. I have been increasingly struck by the question of "who watches the watchers?" and how the American media is 1) framing the event and 2) how "experts" of questionable expertise are trotted out for their obligatory 30 seconds of analysis where they offer unqualified observations in the service of very narrow policy agendas.

On an existential level the crisis in Egypt is about politics. This is an observation to which a superficial reader would reply, "and so what?" But, the idea of "politics" and what constitutes "the political" is laden with assumptions (of culture, time period, and social location). By implication, these assumptions go uninterrogated and unreflected upon. Moreover, I would bet dollars to donuts that most Americans (and people elsewhere) could give you examples of things that are political, but would struggle with providing an actual definition of politics.

This is an important exercise if we are going to offer a critique of how the American media is covering the crisis in Egypt. For example, if one watches Fox News there is an implicit narrative that the protests in Egypt are an example of "abnormal politics." If one watches Al-Jazeera the frame is one where the protests are an ideal example of politics as action--regular people are fighting for their share of power against an oppressive State.

For folks in political science this is a basic debate--and one that can become quite heated. In the discipline there does exist a broad agreement on what constitutes politics. However, it is on the margins, in interdisciplinary spaces, and where questions of power, culture, and identity are at the forefront where the "politics" in political science can become very contentious.

A question then: Of this less than exhaustive list, which definition applies most directly to the events in Egypt?

Politics is about how societies negotiate the distribution of power, resources, and access to private and public goods;

Politics is essentially the study of power and authority;

Politics is about who gets what, when, how, and why;

Politics is the study of the large N: institutions, public opinion, mass behavior, and international relations.

Or is the Egyptian uprising an example of some other type of politics (or even a phenomenon entirely apart from Western notions of the idea)?

Tips and Support Are Always Welcome

Who is Chauncey DeVega?

I have been a guest on the BBC, National Public Radio, Ring of Fire Radio, Ed Schultz, Sirius XM's Make it Plain, Joshua Holland's Alternet Radio Hour, the Thom Hartmann radio show, the Burt Cohen show, and Our Common Ground.

I have also been interviewed on the RT Network and Free Speech TV.

I am a contributing writer for Salon and Alternet.

My writing has also been featured by Newsweek, The New York Daily News, Raw Story, The Huffington Post, and the Daily Kos.

My work has also been referenced by MSNBC, The Washington Post, USA Today, The Atlantic, The Christian Science Monitor, the Associated Press, Chicago Sun-Times, Raw Story, The Washington Spectator, Media Matters, The Gothamist, Fader, XOJane, The National Memo, The Root, Detroit Free Press, San Diego Free Press, the Global Post, The Lost Angeles Blade as well as online magazines and publications such as Slate, The Week, The New Republic, Buzzfeed, Counterpunch, Truth-Out, Pacific Standard, Common Dreams, The Daily Beast, The Washington Times, The Nation, RogerEbert.com, Ebony, and The Chronicle of Higher Education.

Fox News, Breitbart, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Juan Williams, Herman Cain, Alex Jones, World Net Daily, Twitchy, the Free Republic, the National Review, NewsBusters, the Media Research Council, Project 21, and Weasel Zippers have made it known that they do not like me very much.